[nyc_throwaway]

Thanks for this advice. In either case I'd be paid enough to be comfortable, but I wonder if passing up the pay bump will put me further behind in my career. I'd like to get to the pay level in job #2, and I fear working at #1 will slow down my progress toward that salary.

On the other hand, I think job #1 will have more interesting challenges (building out a new product from scratch), but I don't like the space or business as much (social media).

Nothing about this choice seems easy or straightforward to me and I'm so worried about making the wrong decision and regretting this.

[bmuursh]

Personally I'd probably go for job #1 with the more interesting and challenging work. If the work truly is challenging then you should be able to build a strong skill set that will enable you to move onto #2-esque opportunities in the future. You should also take other things into consideration, do you get better benefits (you're in the states so health care should of importance to you), time off, et al...

Which team do you prefer, remember you will spend a lot of time with them, make sure you get along. You mentioned a "strong engineer"; from what you've said I guess you plan to learn from him. If that is the case then make sure you get along well with him in particular. Can you contact people who have worked with them before? Find out what they're truly like...

[brudgers]

My take is that there isn't a wrong decision. Both sound like reasonable opportunities. Each has a slightly different risk profile. Each has slightly different soft upsides.

I don't think 10% is going to affect salary over the long term. The market rate is going to have far more effect.